Cover: The Smithsonian Institution’s Snetzler organ after restoration

JOHN T. FESPERMAN

DIVISION OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

A SNETZLER
CHAMBER ORGAN
OF 1761

SMITHSONIAN STUDIES IN HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY: NUMBER 8

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION PRESS
CITY OF WASHINGTON
1970

A SNETZLER CHAMBER ORGAN OF 1761

The chamber organ described in this booklet was acquired by the Division of Musical Instruments in 1968 from descendants of the original owner, Dr. Samuel Bard (1742–1821) of New York and Hyde Park. Signed and dated “John Snetzler fecit Londini 1761,” it is both a fine example of the work of England’s most famous eighteenth-century maker and a splendid musical artifact associated with one of New York’s leading citizens of the Revolutionary period. Despite its age and travels, the instrument retained its original pipes, wind-chest and bellows, mechanical action, and mahagony case. Alterations by earlier repairers were for the most part minimal, making restoration relatively uncomplicated.

1. The Smithsonian’s Snetzler organ after restoration.

Of the five Snetzler organs known to have found their way to North America before the Revolution, this one, belonging to Dr. Bard, surgeon to George Washington and founder of the Medical School at King’s College, New York, in 1767, is the only one still in existence with a traceable history.

After an introductory discussion of chamber organs and their uses, there follows a description of the Bard organ, its restoration to playing condition, and its historical context.

Eighteenth-Century Chamber Organs and Their Music

The terms chamber organ, cabinet organ, desk organ, and bureau organ all refer to mildly voiced instruments of some half a dozen stops, usually suitable for use in the music room of a private house. The latter two terms refer to instruments giving the appearance of a desk or bureau, when the keyboard lid is closed. English chamber organs, especially those made by John Snetzler, were often housed in handsome cases closely resembling the secretary-bookcases of Thomas Chippendale, topped by a cornice with a broken pediment. (See Figures 2–4.) Glazed or solid wooden doors screened the gilded front pipes, and delicately carved pipe shades decorated the tops of the openings.

The most common method of construction provided for the wind supply (or bellows) at floor level, with the wind-chest at about keyboard height or slightly below. An iron pedal (see Figure 5) was provided for pumping, either by the player himself, or by an assistant at the side of the case.

These organs usually contained from four to six stops, with one or more divided between bass and treble. Samuel Bard’s organ is an ideal prototype, with five stops disposed as follows:

8’ Open Diapason (treble)

8’ Stopped Diapason

4’ Flute

2’ Fifteenth

II Sesquialtera (bass), Cornet (treble)
    Machine Stop; swell shutter (in top of case)

Chamber organs normally did not have pedals and, for that matter, English organs in general were distinguished by lack of pedal boards until well into the nineteenth century. Despite their mild sound, chamber instruments in early America were frequently lent to churches (as in the case of the Bard organ) to provide music until a larger church organ could be afforded.

2. The carved pipe shades for the Smithsonian restoration were copied from this Snetzler chamber organ, signed and dated 1775–6, now at the Birmingham University. (Photograph courtesy of Noel Mander, Esq.)

3. Chamber organ by John Snetzler (1767) now in the Museum of the City of Liverpool. It is similar to the Smithsonian instrument not only in appearance, but also originally had an identical disposition of stops.

4. “A Desk and Bookcase” from the third edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director, London, 1762. Although John Snetzler was not among the listed subscribers to the first edition of the Chippendale book, the affinity between his chamber-organ cases and the Chippendale desk-bookcases is evidence of his acquaintance with the prevailing fashion in English furniture.

A. Bellows, weighted and moved by iron pedal.

B. Outline of wind trunk, conveying wind to wind-chest.

C. Keyboard.

D. Mechanism connecting stop knob to slider at top of wind-chest.

E. Wind-chest, showing pallet valve, connected to key.

F. Sounding board or top of wind-chest.

G. Sliders, one for each stop. (The front slider on the lower level controls wind for all three front sets of pipes, so that they may be silenced simultaneously, usually for quick antiphonal effects.)

H. Pipes, shown for pitch of low C:

a. 2-foot Fifteenth (metal)

b. 4-foot Flute (wood, stopped)

c. 2⅔-foot Twelfth (metal)

d. 4-foot Principal (metal)

e. 8-foot Stopped Diapason (wood, stopped)

f. 8-foot Open Diapason for tenor c (metal)

g. Lowest pipes of Stopped Diapason, “stood off” the chest and supplied by metal tubes from the main chest. The largest pipes for Open Diapason would also be “stood off” the chest, to conserve space.

I. Nonspeaking display pipes. (The display pipes often contained speaking, low-pitched pipes from the Open Diapason, mixed with nonspeakers to fill in architectural space.)

5. Section through a late eighteenth-century chamber organ {from treble end) from The English Chamber Organ by Michael Wilson. (Courtesy of Faber and Faber, Ltd.)

They were favorite ensemble instruments, much popularized by Handel, who intended his organ concerti for such small organs. His own performances became legendary because of his brilliant improvisations between movements of oratorios. The following advertisement, which appeared in Faulkner’s Journal (in Dublin) for 27 March 1742, announced “...on Monday the 12th of April will be performed at the Musick Hall in Fish-amble Street, Mr. Handel’s Grand Oratorio, called The Messiah, in which the Gentlemen of the Choirs of both Cathedrals will assist, with some Concertos on the Organ by Mr. Handell [sic].” Legend, at least, holds that for these performances Handel took with him to Dublin a portable Snetzler bureau organ (as in Figure 6).

The remainder of the repertoire for chamber organs consisted largely of the Fugues and Voluntaries, or sets of Variations, which were turned out by the dozens not only by Handel, but by native English composers (who often imitated him) such as William Boyce, John Stanley, Maurice Green, and William Walond. Undoubtedly, it is to such music that Dr. Bard referred, when he wrote his daughter to practice “the most delicate and best set.”

Chamber Organs: An English Musical Vogue

Chamber organs of the type owned by Dr. Bard in New York enjoyed an amazing vogue in mid-eighteenth-century England. They appeared not only in the music rooms of private houses, but also as continuo instruments for cantata and oratorio performances, as well as for organ concerti. They also formed part of the orchestra for the fashionable pleasure gardens of London. By 1750, the gardens of Vauxhall, Ranelagh, and Marylebone all boasted chamber organs, often featuring famous players of the day, not the least of whom was “the celebrated and astonishing Master Mozart” (when he was eight years old!) at Ranelagh in 1764.¹

6. Snetzler bureau organ, signed and dated London, 1752, now privately owned in London. (Photograph courtesy of Noel Mander, Esq.)

Michael Wilson has properly related the popularity of chamber organs after 1750 in England to the architectural fashion for including a music room in great houses. The architects themselves (including Chippendale and Adam) sometimes designed the organ cases. Photographs of two Snetzler organs in cases designed by Robert Adam are shown in Figures 7 and 8. These examples avoided the extraneous rococo detail that characterized the more exuberant architectural fancies of the time. Examples of these extravagantly ornamented designs may be seen in the third edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker’s Director (London, 1762), which included drawings for six organs in both the “modern” (i.e., Georgian) and “Gothick” styles.

Doubtless some chamber organs stood in the music rooms of English houses, closed and unused, either as necessary pieces of musical furniture or as symbols of the proprietor’s musical patronage. This must have been the case with the elegant instrument now at Colonial Williamsburg, for its keyboard, apparently completely original, shows no evidence of wear and its pipes must have been rarely tuned, since their tops show little evidence of mutilation. Such may also have been the case with the Snetzler organ, presumably in Samuel Bard’s mansion house at Hyde Park. Although Dr. Bard’s organ was regularly used when it was lent to St. James’ Church in Hyde Park in the nineteenth century, there is no record of its having been of great importance in the family’s domestic life.

7. Chamber organ by John Snetzler, made for Sir Watkin Williams-Wynne, with the case designed by Robert Adam. The original design was published in volume 2 of R. and J. Adam, The Works in Architecture, a three-volume work printed in London 1788–1822. The organ is now at Wynnstay, near Ruabon, Wales. (Photograph courtesy of Michael Wilson.)

8. Organ by John Snetzler (1761) in a case designed by Robert Adam, for Lord Scarsdale, Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, where it still stands. (Photograph courtesy of Michael Wilson.)

So popular were these instruments that, considering the strong influence exerted by England on the flourishing colonial towns of the American east coast, it is not surprising to find a number of them in North America, as contemporary records abundantly prove. Most of the eighteenth-century instruments are gone. Of the relatively large number now in the United States, all but a handful were imported in the present century by collectors. There is the famous chamber organ of Thomas Brattle in Boston which is mentioned in a diary by the Reverend Joseph Green, when he made the following entry for 29 May 1711: “I was at Mr. Thomas Brattle’s; heard ye organs and saw strange things in a microscope.”

In Williamsburg, Lord Dunmore had in the Governor’s Palace “3 Organs, a Harpsichord, a Piano-Forte and other Musical Instruments,” while Robert Carter had in his Williamsburg townhouse and at Nomini Hall in Westmoreland County many instruments, including “a good organ.” It was this instrument “of two stops” which was offered for sale to William A. Washington in 1788 for fifty guineas. The public sale of John Green-how’s effects in Williamsburg in 1787 included “a beautiful keyed chamber organ.”²

In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, writing from Paris, not only asked the advice of the venerable Dr. Burney “in the matter of a harpsichord” being made for him by Kirckman in London, but also solicited the doctor’s opinion about the merits and cost of English versus French chamber organs. Dr. Burney’s reply that “abt £ 100 wd I think supply all that is wanting in such an instrument” is probably a good measure of what a moderate-size chamber organ might have cost from a London builder such as Snetzler, who was well known to Burney. With characteristic chauvinism, Burney also informed Jefferson that the English chamber instruments were better than the French: “Give us a principle to work on, & we are sure of leaving an invention better than we find it.”³

Imported Organs in Colonial America

Although the craft of organ building started remarkably early in New England and in Pennsylvania, musical instruments, like fine furniture, were regularly imported from England. Samuel Bard, during his student days in Edinburgh and London, might well have known of the work of the already celebrated John Snetzler. He also had called upon a London factor or agent named William Neate for help both enroute to England in 1762 and after his arrival there.⁴ Bard had taken passage on a ship which was captured by the French, and he was imprisoned 2 November 1761. He finally arrived in London in April 1762. These events are described in letters to his parents dated 28 November 1761 (from Bayonne Castle at St. Jean de Luz) and 27 April 1762.

So far, no link has been found between Neate and the importation of the organ, although some such agent must have negotiated the purchase and shipment of the instrument, perhaps to Bard, perhaps to some other colonist. American buyers were advised by their London agents—as in the case of St. Michael’s Vestry in Charleston—that the most elegant instruments were to be obtained from John Snetzler, “who is now the most considerable and the most reputable Organ Builder in England.”⁵ (See Figure 11.)

9. Samuel Bard as a Young Man. On 19 September 1764, Dr. John Bard wrote to his son in Edinburgh, thanking him for a portrait, which the family had just received in New York: “We have received from you two very agreeable letters, together with the prints, [and] your picture . . . We think your picture very like, and well executed; it was a most agreeable present to us all.”

It is quite possible that the portrait was painted by Benjamin West, the American painter who had moved to London, and with whom John Bard was acquainted. In a letter written from New York on 24 December 1763, the elder Bard encouraged his son “. . . to write to my old friend Mr. West, who, I am informed is settled in London, in very high business; his friendship may be of service to you . . . .”

The portrait at Bard College is a copy, signed “Miriam Sandys, pinxit.” The date of 1871 is suggested by the Bard College Library. On the back of the copy is written “Portrait of Samuel Bard, M.D., L.L. D. son of John Bard, of Hyde Park in Dutchess Co. N. York by his wife, Magdalena Valleau.” John Bard’s wife was not Magdalena but Suzanne, although her mother’s name was Madeleine Fauconnier Valleau.

The original portrait’s location is at present unknown. Whether it was in fact painted by Benjamin West in London in 1764, and sent home by the young student to his family, remains a mystery. (Photograph courtesy of the Bard College Library.)

10. Hyde Park mansion. Samuel Bard built this house about 1795, probably on the same site as the present Vanderbilt mansion in Hyde Park. The painting, unsigned and undated, is attributed to David McNeely Stauffer (1845–1913) and is probably a copy of an early view of the house before it was altered by Dr. David Hosack in 1829. (Courtesy of the Prints Division, New York Public Library, Stauffer Collection.)

11. The letter dated i6 June 1768, as copied into the vestry book o⅔ of St. Michael’s Church, Charleston, in which John Nutt gives the cost of the organ Snetzler made for the church and requests speedy payment. (Courtesy of the South Carolina Historical Society and the archivist, St. Michael’s Parish.)

One of the earliest imported organs, first mentioned in 1708 in the diary of Samuel Sewell, came to light again in 1713, when King’s Chapel in Boston accepted a gift of a small English chamber organ from the estate of Thomas Brattle, after the instrument had been summarily turned down by the Brattle Street Church, whose puritan congregation associated it with popery. The maker of the Brattle organ is unknown, and all that remains of it are its wind-chest and two (of the original four) sets of pipes, which were installed in a new case in the nineteenth century. The instrument was acquired in 1836 and is still in St. John’s Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Three exquisitely carved panels from the original Brattle organ survive in the case of a new organ built in 1964 for King’s Chapel in Boston by Charles B. Fisk, who also restored what remained of the original instrument.

In 1756, King’s Chapel acquired an organ by Richard Bridge of London. Of this instrument, there now remain only two wind-chests and partial pipework for four stops which were incorporated into the organ of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Schuylerville, New York.⁶

In 1733, another imported organ, also made in London by Richard Bridge, was acquired by Trinity Church in Newport, Rhode Island. It was the gift of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, who (having failed in his attempt to set up a college in Bermuda) gave his library to Yale College and sent the organ to Newport, as a token of appreciation for hospitality extended by parishioners. Charles Theodore Pachelbel, son of the famous German composer, Johann Pachelbel, was then living in Boston, and the church employed him to set up the new instrument and serve as organist.⁷

English Influences on American Makers

When American craftsmen began to make organs, they turned for the most part to English prototypes, of which there were many imported examples. When Boston’s “Old North” Church ordered an organ from Thomas Johnston, the Vestry minutes for 11 August 1752 directed “That Mr. Johnston make for the church called Christ Church a New Organ with the Echo equal to that [imported, English organ] of Trinity Church of this Town “Johnston apparently took the case of the 1756 Bridge organ in King’s Chapel as a model for his “Old North’ organ which was completed in 1759. American organs reflected a sometimes sophisticated, sometimes provincial dependence on English styles long after the days of importation were over. As late as 1821, when the same Christ Church replaced its Johnston organ with another American one by William Goodrich of Boston, the new instrument was also judged by English standards. Marsdon Naddock, “Being called upon to accompany Doctr. Jackson to pass judgement on your Church Organ,” wrote in his report to the vestry, on 27 April 1821, “I further observe that I saw the work in its infancy which appeared to me to be as well executed as any I ever saw in London.”

The same kind of comparison can be applied to a desk organ, now at the Smithsonian, made in Boston about 1815 by William Goodrich’s brother, Ebenezer. In both tonal quality and technical design, it is English from start to finish. In fact, the eighteenth-century English style prevailed in New England well into the nineteenth century, even after it had been super-ceded in England.

German Influences

An important exception to the prevalence of the English styles occurred in Lutheran and Moravian Pennsylvania, where there was a steady demand for both instruments and music in the German manner. Because the German organ repertoire was more extensive than the English, and because the instruments were generally larger and more complicated (incorporating fully developed pedal divisions, unknown in England), the Pennsylvania instruments bore a quite different personality than those of English design.

As early as 1741, John Clemm, who was probably the first truly professional Germanic organ maker in North America, made a sizable instrument for Trinity Church in New York.⁸ It had, according to an advertisement in the New York Gazette for 3 January 1763 (when it was offered for sale), “26 stops three Sets of Keys, with a Frontispiece of gilt Pipes, and otherwise neatly adorned”

By the late eighteenth century, David Tannenberg (17281804) emerged as the most distinguished of the German-American builders, and his work, despite minor English influences, bears an indelible Germanic stamp. Three of his smaller organs made before 1800 still exist in reasonably original condition, but the better part of his large output has disappeared, with the exception of a few sadly mutilated examples.⁹

Lost Treasures

The fate of nearly all eighteenth-century organs, imported or made in North America, has been that they were gradually replaced by modern instruments, frequently of inferior quality. As fashion changed, the smaller ones—especially cabinet organs in private hands—were frequently altered beyond recognition if not discarded altogether. John Snetzler’s instruments, despite their elegance, fared no better. Of Snetzler’s organ made for St. Michael’s Church in Charleston, the large Feyring organs in Christ Church and St. Peter’s Church in Philadelphia, Richard Bridge’s organ for Trinity Church in Newport, and Thomas Johnston’s for Christ Church in Boston, only the case remains, screening a modern instrument of quite different character than the original. The little Brattle organ now has a nineteenth-century case and only half its original pipes.

The 1762 Snetzler organ in the Congregational Church at South Dennis, Massachusetts, was quite possibly in North America before 1800, but its history prior to 1858 is still unknown. Of twenty-seven eighteenth-century organs now in this country,¹⁰ nearly all have arrived within the present century, primarily as collector’s items.

John Snetzler’s chamber instrument at the Smithsonian is his only surviving organ with a believable history in America in the eighteenth century. Together with a handful of the works of Tannenberg, one by John Dieffenbach, and three or four other English chamber organs,¹¹ it comprises the total legacy remaining to remind us of a lively and elegant aspect of colonial music making.

12. Snetzler organ, signed and dated London, 1762, now at the Congregational Church, South Dennis, Massachusetts. The keyboard measurements for the Smithsonian restoration were taken from this instrument. (Photograph courtesy of Charles B. Fisk.)

John Snetzler’s Exports to North America

In view of Snetzler’s fame, information about his life and business activities is surprisingly sparse. It has only recently been established by William Sumner that he was born in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, in 1710 and that he died there in 1782, having spent the better part of his life in England. This disproves a series of legends propagated by the London historian Charles Burney. It has not yet been discovered when he arrived in England, although his earliest instrument, signed and dated London, 1742, is now in the United States in the Belle Skinner Collection at Yale University. This signature and date are still controversial as will be explained in the following section. To date, few records which document his business and exporting activities have been found in England.

He was, in any case, a very prolific builder and W. L. Sumner, in The Organ (page 158), has been able to assemble a list of seventy-five organs made or repaired by Snetzler. This list does not include the Smithsonian instrument or several others which have since been discovered. In total, approximately a dozen Snetzler instruments in reasonably original condition still exist in England today, plus three in the United States. That he was highly regarded is indicated by his being asked to construct two instruments for Buckingham Palace,¹² as well as one for St. George’s Chapel Royal. For the redoubtable Dr. Burney, in 1754, he made an organ for St. Margaret’s, King’s Lynn, in which “ . he gave such a specimen of his abilities that he was soon called to almost every quarter of the kingdom.”¹³

In North America, the five Snetzler organs known to have arrived during the eighteenth century were for Christ Church, Cambridge; for “Concert Hall,” Hanover and Court Streets, Boston (maintained by Lewis and Stephen DeBlois); for Trinity Church, New York; for St. Michael’s Church, Charleston; and the instrument owned by Dr. Samuel Bard of Hyde Park and New York.

The Cambridge organ, having arrived in 1764, was badly damaged during the Revolution, and finally replaced in the nineteenth century. Although it may have been seen by President George Washington when he attended services in the church on 31 December 1775, it was certainly in no condition to be heard, as a contemporary letter states: “Unfortunately the Organ could not be used. Some of the leaden pipes had been taken out to furnish ammunition for our men at the fight in Charleston last June, and it was quite out of order, but a bass viola and clarinet played by some musical soldiers led the singing, which was very good.”¹⁴ This instrument, according to vestry records, was acquired with the help of Barlow Trecothick, later Lord Mayor of London, who was the brother-in-law of the Reverend Mr. Apthorp, rector of Christ Church. This organ was probably dated 1761 by Snetzler, giving rise to the belief that it was a duplicate of the Bard instrument. Since it apparently had two keyboards,¹⁵ this could hardly be true.

The Trinity Church instrument was destroyed by fire in 1776 and of the Charleston instrument, only the altered case remains, with a modern organ behind it. The “Concert Hall” organ in Boston has disappeared—unless it could be the organ now at South Dennis, Massachusetts. That Dr. Bard’s organ survived can probably be credited to its being the property of a well-to-do private family rather than a church, and therefore less subject to replacement by a larger instrument.

Snetzler Organs Now in the United States

At present, there are two other Snetzler organs in the United States, although so far, neither has been documented prior to the mid-nineteenth century. One, signed and dated 1762 (Figure 12), was acquired by the Congregational Church of South Dennis, Massachusetts, on 22 September 1858, for $600. This information, together with the fact that it arrived on the packet North (as recorded in the church records), is all that is known of its origin. Of its nine stops, at least two are partly or wholly later work, although it is clearly a Snetzler instrument, authentically signed and dated. It could very well have an earlier American history, since it arrived in South Dennis well after the time when organs (especially used ones) were normally imported, and during a period of great activity among New England organ builders.

The second Snetzler instrument, signed and dated London, 1742, was brought to the United States sometime in the early years of this century for the Belle Skinner Collection, now at Vale University. Presumably, it arrived before 1928, the year of Miss Skinner’s death. Structural details including the pipework, keyboard and hardware authenticate it as the work of Snetzler, although originally it probably was a bureau organ, altered to its present form sometime in the eighteenth century. It now has a curiously painted case, not at all typical of Snetzler’s other instruments.

One convincing proof that the Yale instrument is a Snetzler is that the pipe scales are as nearly identical as they could possibly be to two other Snetzler chamber instruments of unquestionable authenticity. The Yale pipes were measured, apparently for the first time, by the writer in 1968 (see comparisons in Appendix III). Douglas Brown has also inspected this instrument and allowing for changes made after Snetzler’s work was completed finds it authentic.

Another very fine instrument once thought to have been made by Snetzler and now in the United States, is unsigned and undated. Inspection of pipe faces, action, and other details by Douglas Brown and Charles Fisk suggests that it is not the work of Snetzler; however, Noel Mander, who restored it, feels that this organ is an early Snetzler of about 1745. It remained in its original home, Kimberly Hall, Norwich, until it was purchased by Noel Mander, restored, and sold to Colonial Williamsburg in 1954. It retains its original pipes, a fine keyboard with “sandwich” sharps, and is housed in a case of elegant proportions.

There may or may not be reason to doubt the signature, dated 1742, for the Belle Skinner organ now at Yale. The spelling “Schnetzler” is unique. No other instrument of Snetzler’s prior to 1745 is known to exist. The earliest one, signed and dated London, 1745, is part of a claviorganum for which Jacob Kirckman made the harpsichord. This instrument belongs to the Earl of Wemyss, and is among those inspected recently by Douglas Brown.¹⁶ Should the date 1742 turn out to be incorrect for the Yale organ, the only reason for a falsification might be that 1742 was substituted for the original date to substantiate the legend that Handel took a Snetzler bureau organ with him to Dublin for the first performance of the Messiah in that year. Otherwise, 1745 may well be the year in which Snetzler actually arrived in England, although there is still a general confusion about this among English historians.

Since there are probably more organs said to have been played by Handel than beds slept in by George Washington, the prospect that Yale actually owns the altered continuo instrument used at the premiere of The Messiah is unfortunately dim.

Dr. Samuel Bard’s Chamber Organ in New York

A good deal of specific but undocumented information on the whereabouts of Samuel Bard’s chamber organ has been handed down through the Bard family. We do not know through what agent Dr. Bard got the organ, and we cannot prove precisely when. He attended medical school in Edinburgh, and made several visits to London between 1761 and 1766, when he returned to New York and joined his father, Dr. John Bard, in practice. In 1770 he married his cousin, Mary Bard, and set up a household on the east side of Broad Street, near Wall. Samuel Bard opposed the revolutionists, and consequently was for a time persona non grata in New York, and spent little time there. By 1784, however, he had refurbished his house on Broad Street¹⁷ and, according to the family account, gave the organ to his daughter, Susan.

There is every reason to believe the date, 1761, and signature inside the organ. These are in precisely the normal style and location, inside the pallet box, and have been compared in detail with other Snetzler signatures. The traditional information about the organ, as given in the catalog for the “Historical Musical Exhibition,” sponsored by Chickering and Sons in 1902 in Horticultural Hall, Boston, where the instrument was exhibited, is as follows: “[Item] 1027: It was brought to this country before the Revolution and stored in a building in South Amboy until after the end of hostilities. The gilded pipes have been removed and a piece of silk is now used as a cover. The doors also have been removed and the keyboard has been changed from black and white to white and black .” Shreds of green silk still remained behind the facade, when the organ was acquired by the Smithsonian.

It is doubtful that Dr. Bard acquired the organ while a student in Scotland and England for it would have been an expensive purchase, and his father had borrowed money (which Bard repaid with his first income after setting up an office) to enable him to finish his studies abroad. The only document indicating special musical interest on Bard’s part is a letter describing the purchase of “a German flute,” with which he entertained himself enroute to London in 1762.¹⁸ Quite likely, but unproven, is the possibility that the instrument was consigned to some other loyalist in or near New York, who could no longer afford it after the war, or who perhaps had returned to England. Research so far has revealed neither customs nor tax records mentioning the organ, and, the family propensity for giving the organ to younger relatives seems to have prevented its showing up in early wills, including Samuel Bard’s which exists at Bard College.

The earliest document, which at least suggests the existence of an organ, is a letter from Samuel Bard to his daughter written from New York, 25 August 1789, while President Washington was recuperating from the famous carbuncle operation performed by Bard and his father. The letter—now in the collection of the Bard College Library—encourages Susan to work at her “playing and singing,” adding “among the productions complimentary to the President, I wish you would select the most delicate and best set, and make yourself mistress of it, as he is my patron as well as patient. I should choose to hear you sing his praises, the more particularly as his virtue and merit set flattery at defiance.” There exists, however, only “traditional” support for the belief, mentioned in an article about the organ in the Windham County Observer (Putnam, Connecticut) for 26 July 1933, that Washington ever heard the organ. This legend is not to be discounted, since reports persist that Washington visited the Bard family frequently in New York.

The following summary of the Bard-Johnstone¹⁹ family information about the organ’s history is taken from an unsigned paper, probably written by Mary M. Johnstone, about 1900. It came to the files of the New-York Historical Association when they acquired the organ on loan in 1940.

The organ was given by Samuel Bard to his daughter, Susan, in 1784, on the occasion of her twelfth birthday. She later married John Johnstone (who became Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Dutchess County, New York) and eventually gave the organ to her daughter, Mary E. Johnstone (1798–1875). About 1816 the organ was lent by Mary Johnstone to St. James church in Hyde Park, which had been consecrated in 1811, and for which her grandfather, Samuel Bard, had given the land. She was the organist for some twenty years.

Parish records at St. James are scanty, since the church for many years was regarded almost as a private chapel by the Bard, Johnstone, and, later, Roosevelt families. A perusal of the vestry minutes from 9 July 1802 through 12 April 1852, turns up only two references to an organ. For 12 June 1842, there is a resolution “ . that the rector be authorized to employ a suitable person to repair the organ now in the church.” On 1 May 1845, on the motion of a Mr. Cowman, “It was ordered unanimously that the organ belonging to Miss Johnstone which has been so long used in the service of the church be put up and repaired for use at the expense of the Vestry.” Since the original building was demolished in 1844, this suggests that the organ was about to be reinstalled in the new church.

The family information states that when the organ was returned by the church to Mary Johnstone, about 1845, the front pipes were removed and replaced by cloth and the keyboard colors were reversed, there having presumably been black naturals and ivory-capped sharps.

Since the keyboard of the organ as found in 1968 is a nineteenth-century replacement, and since Snetzler is known to have employed the reversed color scheme, especially for small organs, there is good reason to believe this family report. There is also clear evidence that the front of the instrument originally contained pipe shades in the center arch and at the sides, decorations which would have been removed to make way for a cloth screen.

Mary Johnstone took the organ with her when she moved to Bainbridge, Chenango County, New York, in 1858, and at her death in 1875 left it to her niece, Mary M. Johnstone. It was moved to Salisbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, in 1885, by the second Miss Mary Johnstone, where it was set up by a Mr. Flagler. It was during this ownership that it appeared in the 1902 Historical Musical Exhibition sponsored by the Chickering Company. The second Miss Johnstone died in 1912, leaving the organ to her sister, Alice Johnstone Sumner, in Delavan, Wisconsin. Apparently the organ never was shipped to Wisconsin, but was sent in 1914 from Salisbury to Woodstock, Windham County, Connecticut (in custody of Francis Upton Johnstone, Mrs. Sumner’s cousin), where it is said to have been put together by George Ryder, a retired Boston organ builder then living in Putnam. In 1922 Mrs. Sumner gave the organ to her daughter, Alice W. Parker, and it was set up in Villa Nova, Pennsylvania, by George W. Till, who had worked with the organ-building firm of Odell. Till was later curator of the famous Wanamaker Store organ in Philadelphia. About 1930, the organ came into the possession of the great-great-grandson of Samuel Bard, Francis Upton Johnstone, and was shipped back to Woodstock, Connecticut. His daughter, Mrs. Susan Johnstone Milliken, from whom the Smithsonian Institution acquired the organ in 1968, became its owner upon the death of her mother, Mrs. Francis Upton Johnstone, who had lent the organ to Fenimore House, the Museum of the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown.

It arrived there on 20 May 1940, was set up by Walter E. Dodge of Clark’s Corner, Putnam, Connecticut, and remained there until the Smithsonian acquired it on 20 June 1968, when it was shipped off to the restorer.

Restoration of the Bard Organ

The restoration of a rare instrument is expensive both in time and money. It demands a relentless attention to detail and a careful eye for any suspicious features not the work of the original maker. From the beginning, when the Bard organ was dismantled for shipment to the restoration shop, every part of the mechanism, pipework, and case was scrutinized for evidences of the original maker’s work and for later alterations. Dozens of photographs were taken of the organ in its unrestored condition for reference while work was in progress.

Then began the enlightening process of comparing the organ to other existing English instruments by the same maker or of approximately the same date. Of the two Snetzlers available in the United States, the one at South Dennis, Massachusetts, was inspected and measured by Douglas Brown, to whom Charles Fisk assigned a major part of the restoration work. The English instrument at Colonial Williamsburg, was also photographed and partially dismantled by the writer and Scott Odell, who also made drawings of its keyboard. The Yale Snetzler was inspected by the writer and Scott Odell of the Smithsonian restoration staff. Even the remaining Snetzler casework in St. Michael’s Church, Charleston, was investigated and photographs were made of the original signature still existing for that organ.

13. Snetzler chamber organ, signed and dated London, 1748, now at Norwich Cathedral.

14. Chamber organ by John Snetzler, 1761, now in John Wesley’s Chapel, Horsefair, Bristol, England. Doors were copied from this instrument for the Smithsonian organ. (Photograph courtesy Michael Wilson Esq)

The writer was able to inspect and play the eighteenth-century instrument (unsigned, but similar to the work of Snetzler), in St. Cecelia’s Hall at the Reed College of Music, Edinburgh; a 1752 Snetzler bureau organ privately owned in London, in remarkably original condition; and the 1769 Snetzler chamber organ in the church of St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe.

At this time it developed that the instrument dated 1755–6, now at the University of Birmingham, although somewhat larger, was similar to the Bard organ. It has the same type of “pin” action, a comparable disposition of stops and an almost identical case with doors. While in England in February 1969, Douglas Brown was able to measure and photograph this instrument. He also investigated the Snetzler instruments at Norwich Cathedral (Figure 13); Mason’s Hall in Edinburgh; St. Andrews-by-the-Wardrobe in London; the bureau organ privately owned in London; and the claviorganum belonging to the Earl of Wemyss. In addition, photographs—and as detailed information as their owners could be induced to provide—were obtained of organs at Picton Castle, Wales; in the former Rushworh and Dreaper Collection (now at the Liverpool Museum) ; and Cambridge University.

It was decided to replace the nineteenth-century keyboard on the organ with one having ebony naturals and ivory-capped sharps, for which measurements were taken from the organs at South Dennis and Norwich Cathedral. The nosings and other details are patterned after original keyboards from the Norwich organ and the privately owned bureau organ of 1752. The glazed doors were copied from the organ signed and dated 1761 at John Wesley’s chapel, Horsefair, Bristol, (Figure 14) and the pipe shades are copies of the carvings on the Birmingham University instrument of 1755–6 (Figure 2).

Fortunately, only sixteen pipes (from a total of 299) were missing. These were replaced by Mr. Fisk’s pipe maker, R. V. Anderson of Brattleboro, Vermont, to the same scales and in the same style for mouth, cut up, and toe-hole openings of their neighbors. Many of the original metal pipes were badly bent and dented, and these were straightened by the usual process of carefully inserting mandrels of various sizes suited to the diameters of the pipes. A number of wooden pipes were taken apart to be completely reglued, and missing caps (forming the lower lip) were replaced in a few instances.

During the course of work on the pipes, it was conclusively proven that the original pitch of the organ had been approximately a half step below modern pitch (A 440), a development very much in line with known facts about mid-eighteenth-century pitch for nonchurch instruments in England. The main evidence for the original pitch came from marks inside the wooden pipes, indicating that stoppers had at one time been considerably nearer the top of the pipes—enough to lower their pitch by a half step. The metal pipes had clearly been trimmed at some point in the fairly recent past (perhaps when the organ was repaired by A. Leroy Conkey, before being displayed in the celebrated Chickering Exhibition of 1902²⁰) making it possible to tune the organ to modern pitch.

Although this pitch alteration is a negative factor in retaining the complete authenticity sought by such a total restoration, it does make the organ a much more usable ensemble instrument in the present day. It was both for this reason and the fact that returning the metal pipes to their original pitch would require the soldering of new metal around the top of each pipe to lengthen it, that it was decided to leave the organ at modern pitch. In any event, the effect on the tone quality is so slight that no measurable difference results.

15. Front view of Smithsonian Snetzler organ before restoration.

16. Pipework of the Smithsonian Snetzler organ (front panels removed) before restoration.

17. Pipework of the Smithsonian organ after restoration (case pipes removed).

18. Parts of the wind-chest and bellows disassembled for regluing by Douglas van Dyck Brown in the workshop of Charles B. Fisk.

19. Smithsonian restorer Scott Odell covered display pipes with gold leaf, using eighteenth-century water-gilding technique, and repaired damaged moldings on the organ case.

One of the most delicate and time-consuming aspects of the restoration of any early organ involves the wind-chest. Because of decades of existence in an unhumidified environment with high, winter, indoor temperatures, glue joints had separated, and cracks—causing serious air leaks—occurred. This made it mandatory to take the wind-chest apart completely (along with the bellows and wind conductors), clean away all the old glue, and then reglue each of the parts, including fifty-four thin dividers, separating each channel on the chest from its neighbor. The pallet valves for each of fifty-four keys were refaced with leather, while springs and guide pins were adjusted to make the key action even. This having been done, the chest was reassembled with all of its original parts and remains almost precisely as it was when it left Snetzler’s shop in 1761.

The voicing and regulation of the pipes in the style of the original builder is the most important artistic aspect of an organ restoration. Information gathered by Douglas Brown in England from other signed Snetzler organs showed that the nicking of the wooden and metal pipes was about normal for Snetzler in the 1760s. The mouths of many wooden pipes had been arched in the nineteenth century, however, and this required meticulous gluing of extensions to the upper lip of those which had been altered. Mr. Fisk then went over the “voicing” of each pipe, a painstaking procedure, which involves regulation of loudness, quality, and speech characteristics. Since voicing is a major factor in determining authenticity of a restored organ’s sound, the competence, taste, and experience of the voicer are paramount in assuring the success of the restoration. Mr. Fisk’s previous work with the Thomas Avery organ (London, 1792) at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the South Dennis Snetzler organ, two chamber instruments by Ebenezer Goodrich, and the Brattle organ, gave him the experience essential for the Smithsonian restoration.

20. Signature for the Smithsonian’s Snetzler organ is glued to the wind-bar inside the pallet box. The German sentences, written under the signature in a different hand, are:

Ein Leben wie in Paradeis haben wir’s auf dieser Weld.

Herr Adam un Frau Eva die hatten auch kein Geld.

The writing was deciphered and translated by Rodney Dennis, curator of manuscripts at the Houghton Library, and Eugene Weber, Associate Professor of German, Harvard University:

A life as in paradise have we on this earth.

Adam and Eve also had no money.

POSTSCRIPT

The author is indebted to Barbara Owen, who provided information especially about the South Dennis organ and the Brattle organ, and to Noel Mander, whose fund of knowledge is based on his experience as a restorer of at least five Snetzler organs. Michael Wilson of the Victoria and Albert Museum also provided invaluable help. Charles Fisk and Douglas Van Dyck Brown, restorers of the Smithsonian Institution instrument, have patiently provided data as it came to light during the restoration. Mr. Brown spent two weeks in England, measuring and photographing Snetzler instruments, making drawings for the reproduction of the carvings and doors for the case, and recording characteristic details of Snetzler’s pipework and action.

NOTES

¹ Betty Matthews in “The Organs of the London Pleasure Gardens,” The Organ, volume 48, number 189 (July 1968), quoting the Public Advertiser.

²‘As quoted by H. Bullock, On Music in Colonial Williamsburg, Williamsburg, 1938 (manuscript).

³ Burney to Jefferson, 20 January 1787. Quoted in R. Russell, The Harpsichord and the Clavichord, page 181.

⁴ William Neate was the factor to whom Bard wrote in London, to obtain financial help and advice while he was imprisoned in France in 1761–62. Neat’s kindness to Bard is mentioned at length in a letter to his parents, dated London, 27 April 1762, and quoted in McVickar’s Narrative. At the same time, Bard wrote to Benjamin Franklin (as mentioned in a letter from Bayonne Castle to his parents, dated 28 November 1761), to ask him to intercede for his release.

⁵ Letter dated 16 June 1768 from John Nutt, London, to Thomas Savage and Thomas Smith, Minutes of the Vestry of St. Michael’s Church, South Carolina Historical Society.

⁶The King’s Chapel organs are described in detail in Barbara Owen, Organs and Music of King’s Chapel.

⁷ Virginia Larkin Redway, “Charles Theodore Pachelbel, Musical Immigrant.”

⁸ Vestry records of Trinity Church, New York, as cited by John Dix, History of the Parish of Trinity Church in New York, volume 1 page 222

⁹ See Armstrong, David, Organs for America. Extant Tannenberg organs made before 1800 and in reasonably original condition may be found in Pennsylvania at Moselem (Zion Lutheran Church); and Lititz (a restored organ in the Single Brethren’s House). Other Tannenberg organs (including the one made in 1804 for Christ Lutheran Church, York, Pennsylvania) made after 1800 and in reasonably original condition are not included above.

¹⁰ According to the list compiled by Barbara Owen and mentioned in footnote 11.

¹¹ According to a list prepared by Barbara Owen, the Dieffenbach organ, dated 1776, is at the Reading, Pennsylvania, Historical Society. According to Miss Owen’s list, English instruments, thought to have been in North America and in reasonably original condition (aside from the Brattle organ and the Bard organ at the Smithsonian) are: Samuel Green (circa 1775), in the Kent-de Lord House, Plattsburgh, New York; G. Astor (1788) in the Old State House, Boston. The Samuel Green organ in Bruton Parish church Williamsburg, is not in original condition and is not the organ that was originally there. It was purchased in 1937.

¹² The Buckingham Palace Snetzler organs are described by Betty Matthews in “The Organs of Buckingham Palace.”

¹³ Charles Burney, A General History of Music.

¹⁴ From a letter, dated 1 January 1776, from Miss Lydia Biddle to Mrs. Sarah Morris Mifflin in Philadelphia, printed in the Boston Daily Advertiser for 1 January 1876.

¹⁵ In an unsigned article printed in the New England Magazine for March 1834, the organ from “The Episcopal Church at Cambridge” is described as “originally an English instrument with two rows of keys.” The article also says that Josiah Leavitt reduced the organ (severely damaged in the Revolution) to one keyboard, presumably because not enough pipes remained to retain two keyboards. Hence, it appeared to nineteenth-century observers as a single manual instrument, enhancing the legend that it was a duplicate of the Bard instrument.

¹⁶ Mr. Douglas Brown’s authentication of 1745 as the date for the Earl of Wemyss’ claviorganum invalidates the statement in the supplement to Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1961) to the effect that Snetzler’s “first organ was that built for the Moravian Church in Fetter Lane (1747).” Raymond Russell, in The Harpsichord and Clavichord, page 83, also cites the signature and date, “Johan Snetzler fecit Londini 1745.”

¹⁷ J. B. Langstaff, Dr. Bard of Hyde Park, page 151, cites a letter (describing difficulties of putting the East Broad Street house in order) dated 12 June 1784. He adds that in 1784 the New York Packet carried an advertisement, asking for the return to Samuel Bard of books dispersed from the Medical Society Library during the Revolution. The biographical information on Dr. Bard comes from the Langstaff book.

¹⁸ This letter dated London, 27 April 1762, is quoted in John McVickar’s Domestic Narrative of the Life of Samuel Bard, MS)., L.L.D.

¹⁹ A paper found in the wind reservoir during restoration states: “Completely overhauled by A. Leroy Conkey, New Milford, Connecticut, 1901.”

²⁰ The family name was spelled “Johnstone” and “Johnston” at various times, but the current family spelling “Johnstone” has been used in this booklet.

APPENDIX I

Disposition for the Smithsonian Instrument

Chamber organ by John Snetzler, London, 1761

Division of Musical Instruments, catalog number 69.5

Signature on paper glued to wind-bar inside pallet box:

John Snetzler fecit Londini
1761

Disposition (no labels by stop knobs)

Range: GG/B to e³, short octave (omitting G-sharp, A-sharp, B, and C-sharp)

Machine Stop (silences Fifteenth and Sesquialtera-Cornet)

Swell Pedal (opens hinged lid behind cornice at top of case)

See section on “Restoration” for further details.

For pipe scales, see Appendix III.

APPENDIX II

Anatomy of an Organ Pipe

APPENDIX III

Scalings Compared

Comparison of pipe scales for the Smithsonian Institution’s Snetzler organ (1761), the Snetzler organ in Norwich Cathedral (1748), and the Yale organ (1742?). Measurements are in inches, and indicate practically identical scaling for pipes of the same pitch. The figures for the 1761 and 1748 organs were provided by Douglas Brown, who suggests that they indicate that Snetzler may have used identical scaling for his chamber organs. This could be a factor of great importance in authenticating Snetzler instruments, if the original signature has been removed or lost. The Yale organ scales were taken by the author. (Pipes not thought to be original have been omitted.) The Yale measurements were in 32ds and then converted to the decimal system.

GLOSSARY

Claviorganum. An instrument with two keyboards, one controlling a harpsichord and the other controlling a small organ of one to five stops.

Machine stop. A mechanism which causes one or more stops to be silenced, by moving their sliders to the “off” position, when the machine stop pedal is depressed.

Mechanical action. The mechanical connection between the keys and the valves underneath the pipes.

Pedal division. A separate division of an organ, with its own pipes, played by a pedal keyboard of two or more octaves, usually from C to d′ (in the eighteenth century). Whereas eighteenth-century German organs usually had pedal divisions, English organs did not, until well into the nineteenth century.

“Pin” action. A mechanical connection between the keys and the valves under the pipes, which utilizes a metal pin directly under each key. The key depresses the pin, which opens the valve located beneath it.

Scaling (of organ pipes). This is the term for the measurement of the inside diameter of an organ pipe.

Short octave. The lowest octave of the keyboard, from which several chromatic notes have been omitted. The range of the Snetzler is shown as GG/B to e′′ because the apparent low BB sounds GG. (C-sharp sounds AA, and GG-sharp, AA-sharp, BB, and C-sharp have been omited.)

Slider. A wooden board with one opening for each key. The slider, located in the top of the wind-chest, just below the pipes, may be moved to an “on” or “off” position by the stop knob, thus causing a given set of pipes to sound or be silent, when keys are depressed. (See Figure 5.)

Stop. A set of pipes, one for each key. A chamber organ usually has from four to six stops.

Stop action. The mechanism whereby any given stop (or set of pipes) is made to sound or be silent. (See Figure 5.)

Swell shutter. A hinged section of the top of the organ case, controlled by a pedal which allows it to open and shut, thus making the organ sound louder or softer.

Wind-chest. The airtight box on top of which the pipes stand. The key action is connected to valves in the wind-chest, so that, when a key is depressed, air is admitted to the pipe.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

 1. Chamber organ by John Snetzler (1761) after restoration.

 2. Snetzler chamber organ at the Birmingham University.

 3. Snetzler chamber organ in the Museum of the City of Liverpool.

 4. Design for a desk and bookcase by Thomas Chippendale.

 5. Section through a late eighteenth-century chamber organ.

 6. Snetzler bureau organ.

 7 and 8. Two chamber organs by Snetzler, with cases designed by Robert Adam.

 9. Samuel Bard as a young man.

10. Hyde Park Mansion.

11. Letter from John Nutt to vestry of St. Michael’s Church, Charleston.

12. Snetzler organ at South Dennis, Massachusetts.

13. Snetzler chamber organ in Norwich Cathedral.

14. Snetzler chamber organ in John Wesley’s chapel, Horsefair, Bristol.

15. Front view of Smithsonian Snetzler organ before restoration.

16. View of pipework of Smithsonian Snetzler organ before restoration.

17. View of pipework of Smithsonian Snetzler organ after restoration.

18. Parts of wind-chest and bellows, disassembled for regluing.

19. Gold leafing of pipes.

20. Signature for the Smithsonian Institution chamber organ.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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